Dirty Little Secret
by thebluecheat
Summary: Written for the What Happens Next Challenge at milady milord!


**Title:** Dirty Little Secret  
**Author:** **thebluecheat**  
**Spoilers:** 1.23 Modern Warfare and 1.25 Pascal's Triangle Revisited.  
**Rating/Warnings:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** 6200 exactly.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Community, but I wish I owned Joel McHale.  
**Notes:** This is for the What Happens Next Challenge. First fic in almost 10 years, so be gentle.

"So let me get this straight," Annie said, in her best formidable voice, sitting up on the couch to face Jeff, whose face had gone from confident to terrified in seconds. "You want to keep this a _secret_? From _everyone_?"

Crap.

"Well, yeah. For a little while, at least. No one knows yet anyway!" he defended himself.

"That's because we haven't seen any of them all summer," Annie pointed out. "We weren't actively hiding it!"

"Let me paint a little picture for you, Annie." Jeff put his arm, the one he'd snapped back to himself for fear of losing it to an angry Annie, back around her shoulders and pulled her back into him. She settled back against his chest, curled her feet underneath her, and gazed at him attentively, like there might be a quiz afterward. It was sort of adorable. Jeff tried to focus, then continued. "We walk into the cafeteria tomorrow, on our first day back, all cutesy hand-holding and schmoopy eyes-" - at this Annie rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling, "and we tell all of our friends, including Britta, 'Hey guys, guess what! After Britta said she loved me in front of a huge crowd of people, I went outside and made out with Annie! And then continued to do so all summer! How's the coffee this morning?' How well do you think they'll react to that?"

Annie made a face. "Probably not well. But couldn't we try to exercise some tact? Like, instead of the ridiculousness that you just spewed, we could just say, 'Hey guys, hope you had a great summer, by the way, we're together'? Or some other variation that doesn't make them hate us?"

"I think we're facing imminent hatred no matter what."

"Well, think of the study group as a jury. Which jurors do we have a shot at convincing?"

"Hmm. Pierce probably won't care, and Abed will probably keep his opinion to himself until someone asks him for it, or until there's conflict. Which will more than likely be immediately."

"Right. And Troy will most likely be too busy ogling the new freshmen girls to really care either way. So that leaves Shirley and Britta."

Jeff sighed. "And therein lies our problem. Britta will be pissed, royally, and Shirley will side with Britta. She'll probably convince herself that you're a young harlot who stole me from Britta."

Annie's face fell.

"Which you're not!" Jeff exclaimed, wishing he could somehow find the ability to not say everything that popped into his head around Annie. It was like he was so comfortable with her, he didn't feel like he needed a filter anymore. Which was fantastic most of the time, except when he said something stupid. Like now. "You're absolutely not. I wasn't with Britta. Or Michelle. You're not a harlot and you didn't steal me."

She didn't look convinced.

"Hey! Stop looking sad! I'm on Team Annie. We'll figure this out." He stroked her hair, then her cheek, until she gave him that same smile she'd given him on That Night when he was about to go back into the Tranny Dance to deal with two crazy, competitive women, and he kissed her. For awhile. A long while.

Several hours later, they still hadn't bothered to disentangle themselves and leave the couch, too content to just lie there wrapped up in each other. This concept was still somewhat foreign for both of them - for Jeff, it had always been about sex and then leaving, and coming back later for more sex; now it was all cuddling and no sex - a little fooling around, maybe. For Annie, well - with her gay ex-boyfriend, there had been some cuddling, but it was the kind where you huddle together and watch Hairspray and talk about Zac Efron's hair, not the kind where you made out for hours and then just didn't want to let go of the other person. And with Vaughn - he liked to be outside, under the stars, and Annie simply could not get comfortable enough where there were bugs and weird noises and allergens.

"Okay," Annie yawned, sitting up and stretching. "Let's compromise."

Jeff turned over on his side to look up at her. "'Kay. What's our plan?"

"We've established that we should keep this quiet for the sake of not being cast out by our friends, and because Britta and Shirley are scary by themselves, but terrifying put together. But - I don't think it has to be quiet for too long."

"No?"

"I think you should tell Britta and Professor Slater the truth tomorrow - you didn't choose either of them. Just maybe don't mention me. And in a few weeks, we can start...progressing."

Jeff smirked up at her, ideas forming. "Progressing how, exactly?"

"You know - we could start flirting, maybe be caught studying alone together a few times. After a week or so, you could ask me out for coffee or something." Annie playfully batted her eyes at him. "Then, if someone asks, we can say you suddenly fell victim to my charm and overall loveliness."

He pulled her back down to him to kiss her. "I think I might like this plan. And I think Abed would be very proud."

-

The next morning, Annie left in her own car for her 8:00 class, while Jeff was happy to kiss her goodbye and go back to sleep until 11 before finally showing up in his Lexus - complete with new windshield! - in time for Anthropology at noon. He was completely confident in Annie's plan - act like they're not dating, give Britta some time, then gradually start acting like they're dating, until they get to the point where they're not having to act at all. Foolproof.

He headed into the science building (he supposed it made sense, since it did end in -ology and it was a social science) after parking in his still-reserved parking space. He could see through the doorway that the others were already seated at their desks in the last two rows on the far side of the room - Annie in the front row, next to Shirley, Pierce behind Shirley with Troy next to him, Abed behind Troy with an empty seat next to him, and Britta behind Abed. Seems his seat would be next to Britta. Fabulous. He walked into the room, catching everyone's attention in the process. Shirley greeted him with a huge smile, Pierce with a leer, Troy with a confused look (this probably had more to do with his conversation with Abed), Abed with a standard Abed facial expression (like a smile, but also like he's studying your every move), Annie with an apologetic look towards his less-than-preferred seat, and Britta with...nothing. A blank look, no eye contact.

"Jeff! You're here! Did you have a good summer?" Shirley starting bubbling (this is a verb he'd actually invented specifically to describe Shirley's too-cheerful manner of speaking) as he took his seat behind Pierce, next to Abed, actively not looking at Britta.

"Oh, it was alright," he replied, thinking of last night, when he and Annie had fallen asleep on the couch. He'd woken up at 2:00 and tried to get Annie to wake up enough to walk to the bedroom, but she'd just nuzzled her face deeper into his shirt and made adorable refusing noises. So he'd just gathered her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. It made him feel incredibly awesome, and it wasn't even a sex thing. Although sex would have made him incredibly awesome as well. And he was totally going to have sex with Annie. Eventually. It was a weird subject between them - they could talk about so many other things with no difficulty, but if you mentioned sex, Annie would clam up and look uncomfortable. The third time it happened, early in the summer, he'd just come and asked her what the issue was. She'd tried to avoid the topic, but finally she'd just admitted that he'd been with a lot of people and she hadn't and it bugged her a little and as soon as she got over it he'd be the first to know. And there'd be sex. She'd seemed really freaked out about it, though, and so the subject of sex was never brought up again. He hadn't even told her about sleeping with Britta during paintball - if she was bothered by him having sex with numerous women she hardly knew (or in most cases, didn't know at all), she probably wouldn't handle that bit of news too well.

Annie snorted at his response, quickly changing it to a cough. "Sorry, allergies."

Shirley gave Annie a concerned, mother-hen look, before turning back to Jeff. "That's nice! Did you do anything fun?"

Jeff tried not to think of making out with Annie repeatedly. "Not really. Just relaxed, mostly. Worked out a lot. What did you guys do?" he asked, hoping to deflect attention from himself. Britta still wasn't looking at him.

Shirley beamed again, happy to chatter. "I took my boys to see the Grand Canyon. We stayed in a tent - it wasn't too comfortable, but I saved enough money that I was able to take them to Elitch Gardens and Water World twice!"

"I changed my mind about Delaware - I went to visit my grandparents in Florida instead," Annie blurted out, not mentioning the fact that she'd only gone for three days in June - the most horrible three days of his life, in fact. He'd handled it okay the first night, bummed but managing it. The second night, he'd started drinking at 4 and then called her at 10 to tell her, in very colorful language, how much he missed her and wanted her to come back. He'd promised her flowers and chocolate and foot massages and a spa day and anything he could think of to make her come home early. She'd come home the next day as scheduled, and since her parents were picking her up from the airport and had been complaining about never seeing her anymore, and it was difficult to explain to them that they never saw her anymore because she was practically living with her new thirtysomething boyfriend, she'd had to go to dinner with them and spend a night at home for a change. He'd almost cried at that point, but the next morning at 7:30, she'd shown up on his doorstep ("I had to wait for my parents to go to work - are you letting me in or what?") and he'd grabbed her and kissed her without even caring that he had morning breath and was wearing his rattiest boxers and hadn't showered since she'd left for Florida. He'd very nearly almost told her he loved her that day - but he'd held back, because after the Tranny Dance, he was in no hurry to throw that word around. Why was Annie suddenly giving him a stern look?

Oh crap, they were still talking. Pay attention, Jeff.

"I hung out with all my old high school buddies and played a lot of football," Troy told them. "It was great! There was a lot of beer because my friend Danny's nerdy older brother turned 21 and we wouldn't let him hang out with us unless he got it for us. So I guess you could say I spent most of my summer drunk. And hungover." He turned to Abed. "It would have been more fun if you were there, though."

Abed shrugged. "I told you that wasn't something I'd enjoy. I helped out at my family's restaurant most of the summer. And I worked on the Community College Chronicles a lot. The summer webisode series turned out really well."

"Aren't the Community College Chronicles already a webisode series?" Annie asked, confused. Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip; Jeff tried to avoid being caught staring.

"Technically, yes. But starting this season, CCC will be shown on the campus TV station, and I only did four episodes for the summer, so they can be considered webisodes."

"Cool, we're famous!" Pierce announced. "I'm on TV!"

"You're not famous, nor are you on TV," Britta snapped suddenly at Pierce, attracting everyone's attention by finally speaking and wearing a pissed-off expression. "Some old guy who looks nothing like you but plays you on an internet-based show that no one actually watches will be on a community college local access show, but he will not be famous either."

Everyone just stared at her. Shirley and Annie looked horrified on Abed's behalf, and Troy looked murderous.

Britta sighed. "I'm sorry. That was rude and...Jeff-like of me. I had a craptastic summer, taking psych classes and having the few people left on campus give me pitying looks and come up to me and ask me if I 'won', and I ran into Slater almost every freakin' day, and Chang decided I was his new best friend slash verbal abuse victim because no one else was around. So you'll have to excuse me if I'm being a bitch."

There was an awkward silence, and Jeff met Annie's eyes - it was possible that things were going to be more difficult than planned.

At that moment, Professor Whitman waltzed - literally waltzed - into the classroom to the podium at front-and-center. "Salutations, students of humanity! Welcome to my class!"

Hell.

And then, (former) Professor Chang walked in behind him, grinning wildly at the study group, and sat down in one of the desks near the door.

Double hell.

"How is it possible that none of us realized that the only professor who's more of a crackpot than Chang is teaching this class? And why is Chang taking Anthropology?" Jeff yelled, as soon as they were all safely within the confines of the study room. "I mean, come on! One or the other would be bad enough!"

"It won't be that bad," Annie said soothingly, almost forgetting not to stroke his arm and catching herself just in time, reaching up to run a finger through her hair. Wearing it down without clips meant that it got in her face a lot - no one noticed her almost-PDA moment. "I mean, Professor Whitman is actually nice and doesn't seem to want to kill anyone's spirit. And Chang didn't follow us here, so that's a good sign!"

Jeff looked aghast at Annie. "How do you know that won't summon him?"

"He's not the dean," Abed pointed out.

Dean Pelton poked his head into the study room. "Hello, everyone! Welcome back!"

"Jesus," Jeff muttered, squeezing his eyes shut.

"I trust you all had a good summer! We had a great turnout for summer school this year, didn't we, Britta? A huge success for Greendale!" he blathered on, oblivious to the looks of disdain aimed at him from seven different directions. "Anyway, we're having a Welcome Back Party in the quad in thirty minutes, so everyone should be there! But with no awkward declarations this time, because that didn't really end well, did it?" And he was gone as quickly as he came.

Silence again.

"Well, that was my last class until the evening," Shirley stated loudly, gathering her books. "And we don't really have anything to study yet, so I think I'll get home and pick out something nice for dinner for the boys until I have to come back for my psychology class tonight. Bye!" And she hurried out of the room.

"Come on, Troy, let's check on Fievel. I taught him how to stand on his hind legs and make dancing motions yesterday." He paused. "Pierce, you can come too."

"Boo-yah!" Pierce shouted as he followed them out.

Leaving Jeff, Annie, and Britta together in the study room.

Annie looked pained, like she wasn't sure if she should stay or go. They'd agreed that he'd have to talk to her on her own, but she'd been scarier than usual today, and she feared for Jeff's safety and man-parts. Finally, she jumped up. "I-have-to-study-for-Nutrition-class-bye!" Gee, thanks, Jeff thought as he watched Annie race out of the room. He sighed and turned to face Britta.

Her face was like stone as she stared back at him. "So I guess we should talk about this," he said.

"Uh-huh."

"Um. I'm sorry I left you hanging like that at the dance. You and Slater threw a bunch of crap at me and I needed to process it."

No response.

"Well...I think you're great, Britta. Really great. Awesome, even." He stopped, worried about her continued lack of expression. "But...I just don't think it would work between us."

He waited.

And waited.

Hello?

Britta finally spoke, turning her gaze to the floor. "So you're choosing Slater? She'll be thrilled."

"Um, no, actually." Jeff did some quick thinking - he and Annie hadn't gotten to the details in their strategy last night, so he had to wing it. "I'm not choosing anyone. I just don't think I need to be in a relationship now. You're both so great in different ways, but I don't really think I can commit to either of you. I don't feel about either of you the way you claim to feel about me."

Britta snorted. "I don't love you, Jeff."

"What?" He was shocked. Maybe he and Annie were in the clear, after all.

"I don't. And I doubt Slater does either. But that doesn't mean I don't...like you. I do. A lot. But if you don't want this, then I'm not going to push it, and I'll let it go."

Hmm. Not quite in the clear, after all.

"And for the record, if you do get with Slater, I will be very, very angry. Bad things will happen to you. Because I don't enjoy being lied to."

Gulp. No, really, _gulp_.

"That won't be an issue. I'm going to her office right now to give her the same talk."

"Fine." She smiled sadly. "It's too bad, though. I know I was weird after the-" she motioned to the study table and he got an instant vision of her Hello Kitty panties lying abandoned next to them while she moved over him - "paintball thing, but I didn't know what I wanted. Maybe if I had-"

"No," Jeff stopped her. "I think it's better like this. We make good friends. This is good."

She sighed. "Okay. I won't argue with you." She gave him a wry grin. "I do have some dignity, after all." And then she left.

-

He found himself in front of Slater's office, wondering if she was going to yell. Britta hadn't yelled, which was still surprising, but Slater was a wild card. He hadn't dated her long enough to figure out her reactions to various things, so it was a valid concern. He bit the bullet and knocked lightly on her door.

"Come in," she called.

He opened the door and braced himself for whatever might be thrown at him - literally and figuratively.

"Oh, it's you." She sat in her chair behind her desk, her face resigned. "What do you want?"

"Um...I came to talk to you? About...you know?" he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, annoyed at himself for sounding like a twelve-year-old girl.

Her face didn't change. "By 'you know,' do you mean our last conversation in May during which I made a complete fool of myself and you ran away like a dog with your tail between your legs?"

"That's an interesting recollection of it. But...yes."

She sighed. "Spare me your speech. I already know you didn't choose me. And for the record, no, I don't love you. And I didn't even really want to get back together - I'd been feeling lonely lately and the idea of wasting my time with Ian Duncan was much less appealing than spending it with you. I don't blame you for not choosing me after I broke up with you the way I did. But I hope you didn't choose Britta, because, eww."

"Eww?"

"Ugh, yes. She annoys the crap out of me and I can't imagine you actually have an interest in anything she does. Do you?"

"Well, we are friends." This was going better than Jeff had hoped. "But no, I can't say we share many interests. And for the record, I didn't choose either of you."

"Good. I'm happy for you." She nodded towards the door. "You can go now."

"Huh?" He gave her a confused look.

"We're not friends, Jeff. And you're not one of my students. So, thank you for coming here to tell me this, but now we're done and you can go." She turned back to her computer and started typing.

So, he left. Weirdest conversation ever.

-

A few hours later, Jeff was overjoyed at how well his day was going as he walked into the cafeteria. He'd woken up with Annie curled up next to him, their plan of keeping things quiet had gone off without a hitch, he'd managed to not be killed by Britta or Michelle and so far no one was mad at him. All things considered, life was awesome.

Cue Annie running out of the cafeteria with tears streaming down her face.

He caught her arm as she ran by him at the doorway, not sure if these were I-need-someone-to-do-something-for-me-and-my-tears-are-very-useful-for-this tears or the genuine variety - if was the latter, he'd be doing some comforting followed by ass-kicking - but she just looked up at him with very genuine tears before her face turned angry and she slapped him as hard as she could. "You are UNBELIEVABLE," she spat at him, and marched away. He started to follow, rubbing his jaw and cheek, completely lost, but she turned on her heel. "Come any closer to me right now and YOU. WILL. REGRET IT." And she headed to her car, head held high.

What the hell?

He couldn't think of anything he'd done wrong at all. But she seemed to be pretty pissed at him. She'd never looked like that at him before, and he'd done some pretty crappy things to her last year. He walked into the cafeteria, still rubbing his jaw, before sitting down at the group's table. "Did something just happen in here?"

"Not exactly," Britta answered, staring at the doorway where they'd all just seen Jeff take the hit. "We were just talking about the paintball war, and Shirley opened her BIG FREAKING MOUTH-" she glared at Shirley, who looked only slightly ashamed, "and told everyone that we slept together when we were the last two. And then Annie ran out."

Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.

Jeff's face must have shown what was happening in his head right now, because Troy noted, "Jeff looks like he just found out his Lexus was repossessed."

Nice try, Troy, but the Lexus wasn't as high on his list as it used to be.

Abed cocked his head. "No, I don't think that's it. It's not relevant to the topic. I think it's something else." He watched as Jeff's face turned whiter than his knuckles. "He doesn't look angry enough for it to be a material thing. Hmm."

"Britta didn't tell me it was a secret!" Shirley cried. "I didn't know!"

"Well, it wasn't, really," Britta sighed. "I mean, I didn't really want the whole world to know about it or anything, but it wasn't that big of a deal." Her eyes narrowed. "Jeff, you didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal either. Why do you look so...freaked out?"

Jeff was still in his head, screaming OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD over and over and trying to figure out what his next move needed to be. He hadn't told Annie about sleeping with Britta and now she was going to leave him because it was too much for her to deal with. It was already too weird for her that he'd slept with Slater, and she barely knew Slater. She'd mentioned once, in one of the few conversations about Vaughn, that it had bothered her that Vaughn had slept with Britta, one of her closest friends, but that she wasn't really into Vaughn enough that it was a dealbreaker. But she was really into Jeff, at least she had been until three and a half minutes ago, so this might be a dealbreaker. OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD. It was even worse now because she'd had to hear it from the group, so it looked like he'd lied about it. And he had - it was a lie of omission and that would definitely hold up in court if there were some kind of relationship court in which he'd be put on trial for being a horrible boyfriend. And Annie was going to leave him because of it. OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH-

"Jeff! Snap out of it!" Troy waved a hand in front of Jeff's face. He blinked. They were all staring at him.

"We've been saying your name for awhile," Shirley explained, worried. Pierce, Britta, and Troy were staring at him, wide-eyed. Abed, on the other hand, snapped his fingers. "I've got it."

"What?" Shirley, Britta, Troy, and Pierce all asked at once, turning to Abed. "Jinx - you all owe me a coke," Troy gloated.

"I know why Jeff's freaked out." Jeff turned to stare at Abed, willing him to stop speaking, but not able to find the words, still. It didn't work. "Jeff never told Annie about having sex with Britta."

"Why would that matter?" Britta asked, confused. "I mean, I know Annie's a little bit sheltered and all, but you'd think after Vaughn she'd be a little bit more comfortable with the idea of it." Jeff internally shuddered thinking about Annie sleeping with Vaughn, and Abed caught the change in facial expression. "Plus, neither of us told any of you guys. Except when I let it slip to Shirley."

Crap. His mouth felt like he had laryngitis; he couldn't stop Abed-

"That's not it," Abed replied, watching Jeff, knowing he wouldn't want him to tell them this but doing it anyway, because Abed couldn't resist a good audience. "He and Annie are secretly dating, and he didn't tell Annie that he slept with Britta because it would freak her out." He paused. "They're like Chandler and Monica, but when Phoebe told Chandler that Monica was originally going to sleep with Joey at the wedding instead of him."

"WHAT?" Britta exploded at Jeff. He was pretty sure there were lasers shooting out of her eyes, but it's possible he was hallucinating because he needed Annie. "What is wrong with you? How could you? You lied to me - you said you weren't going to be in a relationship with anyone!"

Shirley glared at him. "That's not nice." Even Troy and Pierce looked angry on Britta's behalf, although Pierce was probably just trying to go with the flow. Abed just watched everyone, probably taking mental notes for his next episode.

Jeff finally found his voice. "No, I didn't!" He stood up and yelled. "I said I couldn't be in a relationship with you or Slater! Because I'm in love with Annie!"

The table went silent. Jeff was breathing hard from his loud declaration, which, shockingly, no one else in the cafeteria seemed to be interested in. He couldn't sworn their study group was more popular than this...

Pierce stood up. "Just got a text from Professor Escalera - time for me to head out for wild lovin'. Can someone email me the details of this later?" Everyone ignored him as he walked away.

"Say what?" Troy asked, with a very confused look on his face. "Since when do you love Annie? Or like her, even?"

Jeff sat back down, gritting his teeth. This was not how his day was supposed to go. "Fine. We were going to wait awhile, because we didn't want to upset anyone, but, yeah. Annie and I started dating over the summer."

"How?" Shirley asked, not sure how to feel about this. "She was dating Vaughn. And she went to Florida." She suddenly glared at him. "Did you break them up? You know she told us all to stop meddling with her and Vaughn. That's not nice, Jeff."

"No, I had no part in their breakup," Jeff answered. "They broke up the night of the Tranny Dance, before she came back here."

"She came back that night?" Britta asked, puzzled. "But none of us saw her."

Jeff squirmed a bit in his seat - he really didn't want to do this alone. "Well, I did. Right after I left the dance. And we talked...and realized that there really was something there. And then we left."

Britta's eyes got huge. "Are you telling me that Slater and I declared our love for you and then you went home and slept with Annie?"

"No!" Jeff yelled. He looked around - still, no one seemed to care about them. He lowered his voice anyway. "I did not sleep with Annie. I have not slept with Annie. And it is entirely likely that after all of this, I will never sleep with Annie. Because she might never speak to me again."

"Because you didn't tell her that you and Britta did the hanky-panky?" Troy asked. "That seems kind of dumb to me. Why does it matter?"

"Annie is freaked out by sex," Abed said.

Jeff turned to Abed, suspicious. "Why do you know that?"

He shrugged. "I know everything about you guys. Plus, it came up once in conversation. It was weird for her that Britta was with Vaughn before she was. So finding out that Britta had sex with Jeff, particularly having to find out from someone other than Jeff, affected her much more."

"But if she loves Jeff, she'll get over it, right?" Shirley asked. "I'm still not sure I like any of this, but still..."

"Maybe," Abed replied. "But we're assuming she loves him."

"Well, he just told us he loves her," Britta pointed out, finally seeming to calm down from the whole ordeal.

"That doesn't mean he's told her," Abed said thoughtfully before turning to Jeff again. "Have you?"

"Um. No?" Jeff shook his head. "I didn't even know that until I yelled in the middle of the cafeteria just now. And I'm still pretty shocked."

"Can I make a suggestion?" Troy asked. "You should probably tell her. Girls like that. And it helps make them less mad at you."

Britta scoffed. "Saying 'I love you' is not a get-out-of-jail-free card."

"But it helps!" Shirley countered.

"Oh my god. I can't believe I just spent twenty minutes having this discussion with all of you instead of trying to talk to Annie." Jeff jumped up and started walking toward the cafeteria doors.

"Wait!" Britta cried out. He turned.

"I'm pissed that you lied to me," she said. "And to everyone else. But even though the idea of you dating Annie is a little bit gross, because you're old-" at this, the group nods in unison, "I hope she decides to give you a chance. And also that you learn not to ever piss her off ever again, because that slap looked like it hurt."

He touched a hand to his face. "I completely forgot about that, actually."

"You were distracted by your sudden realization of your love for Annie," Shirley advised. Abed nodded his agreement.

"Well, thanks, Britta." Jeff paused. "You're a good friend and your support means...something."

She rolled her eyes. "You can go now."

He walked away, briefly pondering the fact that he'd been told that twice today, by two different women.

-

He checked the parking lot - her car was gone. Thankfully, Annie was not prone to violence (much) and hadn't done anything to his Lexus, since he'd just gotten everything fixed and beautiful last week.

He checked her house - her car wasn't in the driveway. It wasn't parked at the bookstore a few blocks from her house, either.

He drove around Greendale, not seeing her anywhere. He'd hoped, briefly, that she might be waiting for him at his apartment - no such luck. He finally found her at the coffee shop near his apartment where they usually went for their caffeine fix in the mornings. ("Why don't you just buy a coffeemaker?" she'd asked. "It would be so much cheaper." "But then I'd have to make my own coffee!") She was sitting outside at a table by herself, stirring a mocha and just looking sad in general, a few tears still sliding down her face.

He carefully approached the table and checked for signs of violent outrage on her face before sitting down across from her. "Hey."

She rolled her eyes and sob-snorted. "Hey."

"I really screwed up, didn't I?"

"A good bit, yeah."

"I should've told you about Britta. I just...you seemed horrified enough that I'd been with Slater, and you barely know her. I didn't want to make it weirder for you, you know?"

She blinked tears out of her eyes and made him feel that much worse about himself. "You still should've told me the truth. At least then I would've gotten it from you, and not Shirley." She rubbed at her eyes and sighed. "I'm not even that mad about the fact that you slept with Britta. I mean, it bugs me, yeah. But the fact that you thought it would be better to lie? Because you didn't think I could handle it? That bugs me so much more."

"Is there anything I can possibly do to make this better?" Jeff asked, trying to keep the fear out of his face. _Pleasedon'tleavemepleasedon'tleaveme_.

"I don't know," she sniffled, meeting his eyes. "Is there anything else you haven't told me that you should?"

He didn't say anything, and she looked away, her tears gone for now. She looked so sad, like he'd kicked her puppy or strangled a bunny or purposely not fed her Gigapet (he had NOT been too old for a Gigapet, dammit, and those things were awesome back then) so that it would die. He wanted so badly to make her smile again like he'd done all summer-

"I love you," he blurted.

Her eyes jerked back to his face. "What?"

"Uh. I love you?" He shook his head, annoyed with himself for sounding like an idiot. "I love you."

"Are you telling me this to get me to forgive you?" Annie asked suspiciously, still not smiling. Crap. Britta was right. But he wasn't just using it to fix things!

"Not entirely," he confessed. "I mean, yes, I'm hoping it will help. But I accidentally yelled it in the cafeteria, and I wanted you to hear it from me and not Shirley."

Her eyes widened. "You did WHAT? How are you not dead by Britta's hand? Or Shirley's? Or both?"

"Well, they were pissed and freaked out at first, but I think they might be okay with it now. Abed did his thing using Friends characters, and they seemed to understand that, and Britta actually wished me luck, in her own special Britta way."

"Wow," Annie breathed. "So we didn't really have to keep it a secret?"

"I guess not," Jeff smiled, then frowned. "Do we still have something secret-worthy here? Are you forgiving me?"

She sighed, downing the rest of her mocha. "Well, in fairness, I was only mad at you until I got here. It hurt a lot that you lied to me about it. But, you wouldn't have felt like you needed to lie if I hadn't been weird about sex in the first place. So really, I'm just as, if not moreso, mad at myself."

"Why?" Jeff asked, scooting his chair closer to put his arm around her shoulder and stroke her hair as she leaned into him, relaxing a little. "You're allowed to have neuroses. If it's weird for you that I've been with people you know, then, okay, that's your deal. It's weird for me that people put ketchup on their french fries when clearly they should only use ranch."

She smiled up at him, the really awesome Annie-smile he couldn't stand not seeing as often as possible, and then grabbed his hand and stood up. "It's starting to get less weird for me."

Jeff raised an eyebrow as he stood up. "Really? And does that mean what I think it means?"

"It might," she shrugged as she pulled him to his car. "Meet me at your apartment and you'll find out." She reached up to take his face in her hands and kissed him much the same way she had at the debate, only his reaction times were much better after a summer of similar attacks. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer before she broke the kiss and pushed him back. "See you in a few minutes, milord."

"Yes, milady," he grinned as he watched her get into her car.

It was as he was driving away to follow her that he realized she hadn't said she loved him.

Huh.


End file.
